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KING, LARRY L. The One-Eyed Man
New American Library, 1966. Book Club (BCE/BOMC). Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. BOOK CLUB HARDCOVER. Light shelf wear, dust jacket slightly toned. Binding tight, pages clean, bright, & unmarked. 309 pages. Author's first novel. "The One-Eyed Man is the story of the Restless Generation -- our generation, involved again in the age-old struggle for human rights and painful new beginnings. More than a surface story of street rowdies, night-riding mobs, violence, terror, and passions, it goes behind the scenes of the darkly brooding South -- a South that changes hard -- to examine the shifting of power and the agony of the old order. It looks at the awesome conflict of state and federal power, faces up to the very real problems this historic conflict poses to political leaders and society in general. The One-Eyed Man is written, with gusto, humor, and an underlying seriousness of purpose, by an author whose ten years in Washington politics included campaign swings with the Kennedy-Johnson ticket in 1960 and who had prepped for the national scene at the precinct level in Texas. Do not look for a single point of view here. Look, instead, for the view of men whose divergent backgrounds and experiences have produced the ferment of the Restless Generation: proud, suspicious breeds who could be straight out of Faulkner country; a belabored President in the White House; a Negro war veteran boiling with rage and frustrations at the hostility of his homeland; a Governor who personally 'prefers mine plain vanilla,' but knows that changes must come." ABOUT THE AUTHOR: "Journalist, novelist, and playwright Larry L. King is the only writer to be a finalist for a unique â€oeTriple Crown” of American letters: a National Book Award, a Broadway Tony, and a television Emmy. The author of fourteen books and seven stage plays, King is the co-author of the smash Broadway musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. He was also a star writer at Harper's at the peak of â€oeThe New Journalism” during the 1960s and 1970s. Throughout his long and illustrious career King has been known for his humor, intelligence, and courage. A college dropout from Texas Tech, he was once described by Harper's editor Willie Morris as a brawler from the West Texas oil patch with "a deep and abiding commitment to America and to authentic American values." King became a National Book Award finalist in 1972 for Confessions of a White Racist, his soul-baring account that revealed the depths of white attitudes towards African Americans. As a consequence of that book, he received death threats from many whites, as well as praise from other writers such as Maya Angelou, who wrote to tell him, â€oeI had no idea of your startling courage. I applaud you, man. And pray you stay alive." King's literary legacy includes a voluminous collection of his literary papers, housed at the Southwestern Writers Collection at Texas State University in San Marcos, which is also home to the Cormac McCarthy collection. King saved nearly everything over the years and, as a prolific correspondent, he kept carbon copies of the letters he'd typed, as well as all those he'd received. King's literary papers contain an estimated 40,000 letters, ranging from personal exchanges with senators and congressmen to his relationships with family, friends, and other writers such as David Halberstam, Norman Mailer, and Willie Morris. A collection of King's letters, A Writer's Life, or, Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye, was published in 1999. Among King's many awards are an Emmy for his 1982 television documentary for CBS, â€oeThe Best Little Statehouse in Texas.” His play The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas was a Tony finalist for Best Play. He received the Helen Hayes Award for best new play in 1989 for The Night Hank Williams Died. That play also earned him the Mary Goldwater Award from the Theatre Lobby Trust. King's work has also been recognized and praised in his native state of Texas. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Book Festival in 2004. The Austin Playhouse named the Larry L. King Theatre in his honor in 2006. King has received multiple awards from the Texas Institute of Letters for his writing, including a Stanley Walker Journalism Award for his 1999 article on Willie Morris in Texas Monthly. That article formed the basis for King's acclaimed 2006 book, In Search of Willie Morris. As early as grade school, King pursued publication of his works. He wrote regularly for the student newspaper at high school where he found a mentor in Aubra Nooncaster, football coach, English teacher and poet. From high school, King joined the army where he was a reporter for his base paper. He wrote professionally as a sports and crime reporter for the Hobbs (N. M.) Daily Flare, the Midland Reporter-Telegram and the Odessa American after a brief stint at Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University) as a journalism major. In 1954, King moved to Washington, D.C. as the Administrative Assistant to Representative J. T. Rutherford. After Rutherford was defeated in 1962, King joined the staff of another Texas congressman, future House Speaker Jim Wright. In 1964, struggling to complete a contracted novel, King quit Capitol Hill to become a free-lance writer. His first novel, The One-Eyed Man, was published in 1966, but King's chief livelihood as a writer during this time came from his magazine articles. From 1964, King wrote for The Texas Observer, an iconoclastic liberal magazine â€oethen the only voice of dissent (constant) or reason (occasionally) to be found in my native state” At the same time, Mississippian Willie Morris, a University of Texas graduate and former editor of the Observer, encouraged King's writing ambitions. Willie Morris gave King his first national exposure in Harper's, where Morris was an editor. In 1967, Morris was named editor-in-chief of Harper's and under his aegis, the magazine became famed for its exciting and innovative writing. Morris published the brightest literary lights of the day as represented by an impressive list King catalogues in his book The Old Man and Lesser Mortals: â€oeJames Dickey, Jules Feiffer, Robert Penn Warren, Justin Kaplan, Sara Davidson, Jack Richardson, Elizabeth Hardwick, Norman Podhoretz, Arthur Miller, Tony Lucas, George Plimpton, Bud Shrake, Michael Arlen, Joe McGinnis, Alfred Kazin, John Updike, Ralph Ellison, Jeremy Larner, Ward Just, Truman Capote, Herbert Gold, Tom Wicker, Gay Talese, Larry McMurtry, Joan Didion, Philip Roth, John Fowles, Irving Howe .” Not to be left out are William Styron, Norman Mailer, Bill Moyers and David Halberstam. King's best magazine work, as witnessed by the dominance of Harper's pieces in King's published collections, was done under Morris's editing. Examples of this work are â€oeRequiem for a West Texas Town”, â€oeMy Hero LBJ”, â€oeThe Old Man”, and â€oeThe Whole World's Turned On.” King went on to write for numerous, well-known publications including Life, Holiday, Cosmopolitan, The Progressive, Playboy and Sports Illustrated. He served as a contributing editor at New Times, Audience, Parade, The Texas Observer, and Texas Monthly. King's topics often involved Texas: â€oeRequiem for a West Texas Town,” â€oeThe Old Man,” â€oeThe Lost Frontier,” â€oePlaying Cowboy” as well as politics: â€oeMy Hero LBJ,” â€oeGod, Man and William F. Buckley,” â€oeThe Trial of John Connally.” King also treated other subjects such as sports, travel, and music. In 1978, King penned the book for the hit Broadway musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, based on an article he wrote for Playboy. The success of Whorehouse allowed King to get off what he had come to feel was the magazine treadmill and develop his talent in a different form. He has subsequently written six more plays, several of which have earned glowing reviews and popular success. His post-Whorehouse work includes The Kingfish (co-written with Ben Z. Grant), The Night Hank Williams Died, Christmas 1933/That Terrible Night Santa Got Lost in the Woods, The Golden Shadows Old West Museum, The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public, and The Dead Presidents' Club." -- The Wittliff Collections.
Offered for US$ 10.20 by: Yesterday's Muse Books - Book number: 1501107
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